Air Force Civil Engineer Center



STYROFOAM THIS?!

NOTE: Items to be tailored by each installation are shown in brackets, [italic bold].

By the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Have you ever tried to recycle Styrofoam or polystyrene food containers on-base?

You can’t simply put them in the waste with other recycling materials and hope trash haulers pick it up and take it to their facility where it will somehow be managed. Why? Because Styrofoam just doesn’t degrade, dissolve or break into little pieces in landfills.

Most waste recyclers don’t want waste Styrofoam, no matter the form it comes in because it takes up a lot of space and there’s very little market for it – it’s too cheap to manufacture new.

Most Styrofoam manufacturers would try tell us that their product is relatively harmless, inert and doesn’t require as much energy or chemicals to produce which is true. However, what they don’t tell us is that once this stuff is made it’s going to be with us for a long, long time and no one even knows what those long-term impacts are going to do to the environment or human health.

Consider the following facts about Styrofoam before you use a Styrofoam cup or put your food in a clamshell doggy bag:

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, each year Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups.

• Food contaminants make recycling Styrofoam more difficult. Recycling centers that accept Styrofoam products used for food spend the bulk of their resources cleaning up the food waste on the Styrofoam. Thus, recycling Styrofoam products used for foods is not economically sustainable.

• The use of Styrofoam for food packaging is now completely banned in some U.S. cities.

• It is estimated that 30 percent of the total solid waste volume dumped in landfills is Styrofoam.

• Styrofoam is hardly biodegradable. In the absence of a suitable solvent, Styrofoam can last almost forever – probably more than 500 years.

• The manufacturing process for Styrofoam also consumes petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource, and benzene, which is known to be carcinogenic to humans.

So what are you going to do? The best, easiest, quickest, and most satisfying recycling action is to forego using Styrofoam altogether. But if you must use it, recycle it the best you can.

Styrofoam products that can be recycled the easiest contain the recycling triangle logo on them with the number 6 stamped inside, and include cups, foam food trays and packing peanuts.

To start your recycling process, consolidate well-rinsed used Styrofoam in large plastic garbage bags, and break it up into smaller pieces to take up less space. You can either use the Styrofoam later as packing materials for your own shipping or packaging needs, or once the bag is full, take it to a mailing or shipping company, like Mailboxes Etc., UPS, and other local shippers where they will reuse it over and over again for shipping and packaging security.

If the shippers won’t or can’t take the material, review the data on the Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group (at ) of the American Chemical Council (at ) and contact one of the listed firms for additional information.

Several Styrofoam manufacturers (Solo Cup Company, Pactiv Corporation, StyroChem, Dart Container Company and others) have started a recycling program specifically for their product to safely recycle Styrofoam.

Another good resource if you’re in the United States is at the Earth911 website, . At the top of the web page is a search function where you can enter the term "polystyrene" or "Styrofoam" and then in the box on the right, enter your location. The search results will provide listings of companies and organizations in your local area that will take polystyrene. This site is also a good source for all types of recycling.

[Insert information on installation-specific Styrofoam policies, or the base office where more information can be obtained]

As part of the Air Force’s ongoing Win the War Against Waste campaign, an initiative to reduce solid waste, the service is dedicated to reducing wastes such as Styrofoam.

One of the best things you can do is to minimize the purchase of products that use Styrofoam, and whenever you can, choose eco-friendly alternatives instead.

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